Branch seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle of great Raiders despite being a vertical threat into his 30s and posting numbers (501 receptions, 8,685 yards, 67 touchdowns) that dwarfed those of Lynn Swann (336 receptions, 5,462 yards, 51 touchdowns). He was the essence of the Raiders’ vertical passing game that Davis is to this day still trying to recapture.

For those who don’t think Branch had the kind of huge, career-capturing moment which Swann did during his NFL Films Super Bowl highlight reel, you weren’t in attendance the day he made a diving catch of an underthrown Ken Stabler bomb, then got up and completed an 72-yard touchdown play in the Sea of Hands game. He had three touchdowns in three Super Bowl wins _ the same number Swann scored in four Super Bowl wins.

Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer

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It’s does not make sense that Cliff Branch is not in the hall of fame…The era that he played in with the battles against the Steelers and other teams when they didn’t have all of these rules, when they played real football this dude was the man. How many games did we all watch Stabler work the 2 min clock and Cliff coming up with big catches and he did not slow down once Plunkett came on board. He is a HOF but he is a Raider and that’s the problem. We need a Raider Stadium so we can build our own Hall of Fame!!!!